Customers & Research

I'm a non-technical founder validating an idea. How do I map the job before I've built anything to demo?

A starting point

You don't need a demo to understand a job, you need conversations, and the lack of a product is actually an advantage because people talk more freely when you're not selling. Focus entirely on their current behavior and struggles, not your idea, and resist describing what you plan to build. As a starting point, treat this phase as pure listening: your job is to leave every conversation with a clearer picture of theirs.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time.

3 resources 3 link-checked Watch Read Use

Watch

▶️ Video
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it When you are new to a space, your instinct is to explain your idea and hope people nod, which teaches you nothing. This YC talk is a concrete guide to running discovery interviews the right way: extract data from the person instead of pitching, and use a small set of questions that work in any industry, including one you are still learning. It pairs well with The Mom Test as the applied version you can watch before your next call.

How to Talk to Users

On Y Combinator (Startup School) by Eric Migicovsky ~25 min

How to Talk to Users
  • The interview is to extract data, not to sell: stop talking about your idea and let them talk about their problem.
  • Skip hypothetical questions (would you use this) and ask what they have actually done to solve the problem today.
  • A handful of questions works across any industry, so you can start interviewing before you are an expert in the space.
Watch on YouTube youtube.com →

Read

📖 Book
✓ Link checked Paid Beginner

Why we picked it The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past behaviour, not your idea, so you can't be lied to. If a founder reads one thing before talking to a single customer, it's this.

The Mom Test

From momtestbook.com by Rob Fitzpatrick ~130 pages

  • Talk about their life, not your idea.
  • Ask about specifics in the past, not opinions about the future.
  • 'That's so cool, I'd totally buy it' is a compliment, not data, dig for commitment and evidence.
Open momtestbook.com →

Use

📋 Template
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it This is a ready-to-run interview script written for the exact moment you have an idea but nothing to show, so a non-technical founder can follow it word for word in a first conversation. The full script is free on the page: opening lines, the meaty questions about how people work today, and the closing reach-for-the-door question. It pairs naturally with The Mom Test's principles by giving you the actual sentences to say.

Customer Interview Script: Discovery Phase (before you've built anything)

From Deploy Empathy by Michele Hansen (Deploy Empathy) One page, full script

  • A complete opening-to-closing script you can read aloud, so you are not improvising your first interviews.
  • Questions map the person's current workflow, tools, costs, and biggest frustration, which is the job you are trying to understand.
  • Run at least five conversations (often ten or twenty) before patterns emerge, ideally audio-only so people open up.
Open deployempathy.substack.com →

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